by Brianna Crandall — August 8, 2012—On August 1, social media giant Facebook released information about its carbon footprint for the first time, reflecting the company’s energy use as well as its efforts to save energy and the challenges it faces in doing so. Facebook shared its 2011 carbon footprint, energy mix and energy use for its data centers and global offices.
According to Facebook, “We’re releasing this data because we believe in the power of openness, and because we hope that adding another data point to our collective understanding of our industry’s environmental impact will help us all keep improving.” The company says its goal is “to understand where we have the most opportunity—and responsibility—to minimize our long-term environmental impact.”
Highlights of the report are:
- The total annual carbon footprint per monthly active Facebook user in 2011 was 269 grams, roughly the same carbon footprint as a medium latte or three large bananas.
- Facebook’s total energy use from office space, data centers and other facilities was approximately 532 million kWh.
- Facebook’s greenhouse gas emissions, or carbon footprint, from data centers, office space, employee commuting, employee air travel, data center construction and server transportation totaled approximately 285,000 metric tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent, which includes greenhouse gases CO2, CH4, N2O, and HFCs).
- Facebook’s energy mix was 23% clean and renewable, 27% coal, 17% natural gas, 13% nuclear and 20% uncategorized (energy that is purchased by utilities on the spot market and can include any or all of the above categories).
- Facebook’s total energy use from office space, data centers and other facilities was approximately 532 million kWh.
The fast-growing company acknowledges that reducing its impact and significantly altering its energy mix will be challenging in the short term, due primarily to the short supply of clean power sources where Facebook currently has its data centers. The company’s goal is to derive at least 25% of its energy mix from clean and renewable sources by 2015 (up from its current 23%), which it admits will be difficult at this point, but which will be helped when Facebook’s new data center in Lulea, Sweden comes online in 2014.
In the interim, Facebook says it will maintain its focus on maximizing efficiency in its operations and sharing its strategies for doing so via the Open Compute Project. The company will also continue trying to introduce more clean and renewable energy into the mix that powers its data centers by:
- Including a preference for locations that have access to clean and renewable energy sources in its data center siting policy;
- Engaging with environmental organizations, industry peers and its utility providers to advocate for more clean and renewable energy sources in the overall energy mix available to all consumers; and
- Including a renewable energy component to every new data center it builds.
- Engaging with environmental organizations, industry peers and its utility providers to advocate for more clean and renewable energy sources in the overall energy mix available to all consumers; and
Acknowledging the “great opportunity in the power of our platform and the more than 950 million people who use Facebook,” the company plans to drive environmental awareness, education and action through its Facebook.com/green page and investment in partnerships.
